17th Century
Military History
Early History
ECW
18th Century

Military aspects of the early 17th Century are covered in the previous section on the English Civil Wars. These concluded wit the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660.

Order of Precedence

Orders of Precedence were first set down for the British Army in the Royal Warrant of 12th September 1666. A further Warrant was issued on 6th February 1684 and this included those regiments that had been in the garrison at Tangier, including The Royal Scots, who were placed, by virtue of the date that they were raised, at the head of the list of Regiments of Foot and immediately behind the Guards.

This order of seniority was changed by King William's Royal Warrant of 10th June 1694 which ordered that a regiment's seniority dated not from the date of its raising but from the date that it entered the English Establishment. There was considerable confusion and dissatisfaction and eventually in 1718 a Board convened to examine competing claims and lay down a new order of precedence of the regiments. The resulting list owed more to the power and influence of individual colonels than it did to either logic or historical accuracy.

Legislation

The Articles of War (1663) established the army's internal code of discipline, adjudged by courts-martial. Since the power of these courts was not recognised by law, their power was restricted to stoppages from pay, suspension or dismissal.

The Crown remained as the authority to which the Army and Navy gave their allegiance and was still in command of the armed forces. Yet Parliament by the Mutiny Act granted authority to the crown to enforce discipline by Court Martial for only one year at a time. This was the first of a long series of acts, passed at first every six months and then annually, which sanctioned the existence of a standing army by providing for the punishment of mutiny and desertion.

The temporary nature of the acts emphasized the need for regular parliaments. In 1879 the Mutiny Act was replaced by the Army Discipline and Regulation Act, which gave way in 1917 to the Army and Air Force (Annual) Acts.

Growth

Against a general trend of peacetime drawdowns, there were two particular events that triggered growth in the English Army.

In 1685 James II raised nine infantry regiments to suppress rebellion triggered by the Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II, who had taken advantage of the popularity of his Protestantism to attempt to wrest the throne from his Roman Catholic uncle, James II. Landing at Lyme Regis in Dorset on June 11, he was proclaimed king at Taunton, failed to take Bristol, and fell back on Bridgwater. His path was then blocked by the royal army encamped on Sedgemoor. Monmouth decided on a hazardous night attack and very nearly succeeded; but his small force of cavalry fled, his foot soldiers failed to cross the ditch separating them from the royalist front, and, once the element of surprise was lost, Monmouth's untrained and unofficered followers were cut down. Monmouth was captured soon afterward and executed; many of his followers were condemned to death or transportation in the Bloody Assizes, a series of trials conducted by Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys in the ensuing months.

 

1688 The Glorious Revolution

The events of 1688-89 that resulted in the deposition of James II and the accession of his daughter Mary II and her husband William III, prince of Orange and stadholder of the Netherlands. James II, an overt Roman Catholic alienated his populus and increasingly the Protestant Church of England. This became worst when the King's wife, Mary of Modena, bore him a son - thus providing an heir. At this point William of Orange was invited to come over with an army to redress the nation's grievances.

William accepted the invitation, and landed at Brixham on Tor Bay (November 5 1688). As he advanced on London, support fell away from James II and eventually James fled to France. William was now asked to carry on the government and summon a Parliament. When this Convention Parliament met (Jan. 22, 1689), it agreed, after some debate, to treat James's flight as an abdication and to offer the Crown, with an accompanying Declaration of Right, to William and Mary jointly. Both gift and conditions were accepted. Thereupon the convention turned itself into a proper Parliament and the Declaration into the English Bill of Rights.

1689 English Bill of Rights

This bill gave the succession to Mary's sister, Anne, in default of issue to William and Mary; barred Roman Catholics from the throne; declared a standing army illegal in time of peace; and required frequent parliaments and free elections. This settlement was a significant step in the country's development, being a of a social contract between the king and his people represented in parliament.

Also in 1689, the Mutiny Act recognised the legal existence of both the standing army and its courts-martial, and restrained the monarch's control over military forces in England by restricting the use of martial law. The act now extended the powers of courts-martial to include the taking of life and limb for certain offences under the Articles of War.

1689 War of the Grand Alliance

In February 1689, the Dutch declared war on France, and after a sequence of events in May the three British kingdoms entered the struggle, behind their new Dutch King. At this point it was necessary to strengthen the army, and the following regiments were raised:

1689 Irish Rebellion

In March 1689, James II and a small French army landed in Ireland - presently controlled largely by Catholic rebels.

Most the regiments raised for this war were disbanded by 1698